


The Uncommon Reader

by orphan_account



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Angst, Kinda, M/M, Metafiction, Off-screen sexy time, Reality, Smoking, also kinda - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 07:58:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10635603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Title taken from Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader.Hope ye enjoyed.





	

                Phil had taken up to smoking. It made him feel self-conscious, but Dan persisted – “It’s fine, I don’t mind.” His face was a perfect caricature of nonchalance, but as he watched the one-a-day turn to two-a-day, and the two-a-day to ten-a-day, as he watched his husband place another stick between is pearly pink fingers, all he could think was this.  _8 minutes. 8 minutes of your life._

                -

                Phil’s night dresser contains these; paracetamol, bottled water, train tickets, condoms, and his wedding band. Recent additions include novelty lighters and a 20 pack of Mayfair. The surface had gained a new addition too, an ashtray with a picture of a dog in the centre. Dan watches Phil stab burning ash into the dogs face, and he’s filled with contempt. Dan doesn’t have qualms with the smoking, he has qualms with Phil being dishonest with himself.  Emoji lighters and shiba-inu ashtrays didn’t dull the act. They wouldn’t smooth the impact when cancer came to spit in his face.

                Phil grinds the ash in harder.  _8 minutes_ , Dan thinks bitterly. Sighing, slick with sweat, he reaches for his phone.

                Phil had fell culprit to the cliché of smoking after sex. Dan was sleeping less and less with him as a result. If he noticed it, he didn’t mention it.

                Dan hears a flicker, and soon feels a small heat radiating to the right of him. Hurriedly, he unlocks his phone. Give him fiction over this. Give him anything over this.

                Finding solace in the phanfic blog, he does his best to ignore the growing stink next to him. But it permeated. Threaded its way into his nostrils. Forced him to take notice. Always. Scrolling, scrolling… Sandwiched between the pastel/punk AUs and the smut, there’s one fic that catches his eye.  _The Smoker_. No synopsis. Curious, he opens the link.

_Phil had taken up to smoking…_

                Dan reads. The prose was a bit dry for his taste, and the author was obviously young, writing about things they didn’t fully understand. But they got it. They had it down to the minutest details – even his recurring  _8 minutes_  monologues.

                He turns to Phil. He’s about to mention it, when he sees him stabbing out his second cigarette.

                Phil meets his gaze.

                “Another round?”

                Dan agrees, and Phil presses his mouth to his. Dan tastes nothing but fresh nicotine. He thinks he can feel tar in his gums.

                 _Think of England,_  he sighs silently,  _think of the motherland._

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader.
> 
> Hope ye enjoyed.


End file.
